Chastain and Isaac (“Inside Llewyn Davis”) star as the heads of an oil business who get caught up in the New York City criminal underworld during the winter of 1981. Chandor, Oscar-nominated for “Margin Call” and acclaimed for “All Is Lost,” directs his own original screenplay.

Is it an Academy contender? We won’t know until we see the film, which will roll out nationally in January after its December limited opening.

Isaac, who ably carried “Inside Llewyn Davis,” is still on the rise (he’s superb in Patricia Highsmith mystery-thriller “The Two Faces of January.”) And with “The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby” receding and “Miss Julie” not taking off at the Toronto International Film Festival, this may be Chastain’s best Oscar shot.